Where are the Children?

After the British North America Act, and the passing of the Indian Act in Canada, the good intentions and the protection offered by the Royal Proclamation of 1763 were turned against the very people the original document meant to protect. Thus began the era of horrific abuse, neglect, and forced assimilation of the residential school system.

For nearly 150 years, education became the primary means of separating Aboriginal children from their parents, families, and communities. Education attempted to assimilate these children into the dominant Canadian culture. Yet the education they received had nothing to do with constructive learning, but everything to do with living in fear and learning to hate themselves and their traditional cultures.

All residential schools are now closed, and much has been done to try and repair the damage caused to generations of Aboriginal peoples. Healing agencies and government support have been created. Both the church groups that ran the schools and the government of Canada have offered apologies for the damage that they knowingly inflicted on the children in their care. And monetary compensation has been made available for the victims of abuse.

We must continue to make the healing of Aboriginal communities a priority in Canada, because our efforts today will help future generations lead fuller and better lives. As the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal People stated in 1991,

The future must include making a place for those who have been affected by the schools to stand in dignity, to remember, to voice their sorrow and anger, and to be listened to with respect. With them Canada needs to pursue justice and mutual healing; it must build a relationship, as the Manitoba leader and much decorated veteran Thomas Prince encouraged the government to do in his appearance before the joint committee of the Senate and the House of Commons in 1947, that will bind Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people "so that they can trust each other and . . . can walk side by side and face this world having faith and confidence in one another.

Thus a conclusion of sorts comes to the bleak era in Canadian Aboriginal history known as the Residential School system. Although it will be many years before the healing is complete, it is important that all Canadians make every effort to ensure that history does not repeat itself, and that in the future, Aboriginal people take their rightful place among the founding nations of this country.